04 Jun 2018

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng has praised a visually impaired theater group for their resilience and transcending their visual impairment at the third Youth Business Expo Awards on June 1.

The group, which gave a thrilling musical performance at the awards ceremony at Boipuso Hall, scooped P25 first prize as the Minister’s award.

The hall was filled to capacity with youth who participated in the exhibition which ran from 28 May and ended on June 3.

Speaking during the awards ceremony which had attracted various youth businesses from across the country, Minister Olopeng commended the youthful group for their perseverance and ability to look beyond their visual impairment and unleashing their talent through music.

Outstanding young people were awarded in categories of manufacturing, science and technology, agriculture production, food processing, professional services, consultancy services, tourism, environmental and conservation as well as the creative arts.

Under the agricultural production category, Mzanico Small Stock Production scooped position one and won P15 000, Senela Creative came second and won P10 000 while Tlhabogan’s Farm came third and pocketed P5 000.

In the creative arts category, Mowana Gallery scooped first position while Simply Balloons came second and Creative Soul Production third. In the consultancy services category, KDM Global Consultancy got position one, an etiquette company called Belle Larisa scooped position two while NGBO Consultancy Company came third.

Speaking during the awards ceremony, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) chief executive officer, Mr Thabo Thamane congratulated the Youth Expo participants.

“Your being here means that you have already moved beyond thinking about what the country can do for you to what you as purposeful beings can contribute to the country,” he said.

Mr Thamane noted that CEDA had since its inception funded 1, 375 youth owned businesses to the tune of more than P600 million through all sectors of the economy. He added that P300 million was used to finance the CEDA Young Farmers Fund (YDF).

He also noted that in an effort to improve financial inclusion amongst micro entrepreneurs, CEDA launched the Mabogo-Dinku product in the last quarter of 2016. The product, he said, was popular amongst the youth with 277 youth owned businesses funded to the value of P3.4 million since October 2016.

Furthermore, the CEDA CEO said the Youth Business Expo Awards were a testament of government’s commitment towards the support of youth, as they were the only guarantee of the long-term economic prospects of the country.

He said government strived to reduce youth unemployment and poverty through its different economic empowerment programmes such as the Young Development Fund (YDF), the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development programme commonly referred to as LIMID, Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD) and CEDA.

Moreover, Mr Thamane said the National Spatial Plan 2036, which was targeted at providing a holistic approach to all physical planning across the country, was inclusive of young people.

Through the plan, he noted that government was committed to giving priority to the youth when allocating land for agriculture and business purposes.

He urged the youth to utilise the plan and other programmes and schemes offered by government as they would aid in growing their businesses and the economy of the country.ENDS